It looks like one pitch by Justin Verlander Tuesday cost the Tigers Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

It was a 1-0 loss to the Red Sox. The pitch was hit into Comerica Park’s left field bullpen for a home run by Boston first baseman Mike Napoli.

Looks can be very, very deceiving.

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It wasn’t that bad a pitch. It was thrown 96 mph. It was the 100th of the night by Verlander on a 3-2 count with one out during the seventh inning. It was supposed to be up and on the outside edges of the strike zone. Instead, it swung back near the heart of the plate and was lower than aimed, although it wasn’t exactly right down the middle.

Napoli, who lacks consistency, but not power, crushed it.

He has done this type of thing before to the Tigers, specifically when he was a catcher with the Texas Rangers in the 2011 ALCS. His first major league hit was a home run off Verlander in 2006. Actually, it was Napoli’s first MLB at bat.

The euphoric feeling of the 1-0 series lead after a 1-0 victory over the Red Sox in Game 1 at Fenway Park Saturday has been replaced by a feeling of exasperation.

WILL THIS TEAM JUST GET A KEY HIT!!!

Fielder projects as a probable Hall of Famer, but his postseason woes are stunning and alarming. This has been going on since his days in Milwaukee. Come the postseason, he makes Mario Mendoza seem like one of the Bash Brothers.

Fielder came up with runners on first and third and two outs in the eighth inning, his team down by a run, and was fanned by Red Sox closer Koji Uehara.

“He made great pitches,” Fielder said. “Obviously, I couldn’t barrel the ball, but there istomorrow.”

There is a balance between knowing the series is far from over with the reality the Tigers’ let two games get away they should have won.

They blew a 5-0 lead Sunday. They wasted a breathtaking pitching performance by Verlander (eight innings, four hits, a run, one walk, 10 strikeouts) Tuesday.

The Tigers should be leading this series three games to none and looking to close it outWednesday in Game 4. Instead, they are behind the 8-ball.

Fielder and perpetually-whiffing leadoff hitter Austin Jackson are taking the brunt of the blame from fans, but there is plenty to go around.

All Cabrera had to do in the eighth inning was hit a sacrifice fly with one out. He struck out, too. Jhonny Peralta has gone from goat (because of his 50-game MLB suspension for PED use) to playoff hero (the Tigers would not have advanced this far were it not for his clutch home run vs. Oakland), but he didn’t produce at key moments Tuesday, either.

It’s gotten to the point Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland admitted after the game he was thinking about replacing Jackson in center field with Don Kelly.

Yeah. That Don Kelly.

“There’s only a couple options you have,” Leyland said. “…I think sometimes you just have to live with it unless you come up with something that really makes sense.”

For the Tigers, the ALCS has been nonsensical to this point.

Only this much is certain: The Tigers’ World Series championship dreams will die if they don’t start hitting better.